Deliberation begins in Davis mother's trial

After about two weeks of testimony, lawyers defending and prosecuting the Davis mom accused of drowning her 4-year-old daughter delivered closing arguments Tuesday.

Jurors will deliberate whether Aquelin Talamantes, 29, is guilty of first or second-degree murder.

Defense attorney Sally Fredericksen maintains her client — who drowned her daughter Tatiana Garcia in September at a Davis home before driving to a Sacramento apartment with the child's body wrapped in a blanket and trash bag in the trunk — is guilty of the lesser charge, second degree murder, because she was not of her right mind at the time of the death. In her opening statements, Fredericksen told jurors that her client killed her daughter, but that it wasn't first-degree murder.

Unlike first-degree murder, which is defined as a wilful, deliberate and premeditated action, second degree is committing an act causing death and doing so with "malice of forethought," or the intent to kill.

Talamantes has pleaded guilty by reason of insanity. She did not testify during the trial.

"There is no way that Ms. Talamantes is capable of weighing the consequences of her actions," said Fredericksen, citing her client's multiple hospital visits and other attempts to get help for her alleged mental illness prior to the murder. "Ms. Talamantes was in her own world. She was not in any condition whatsoever to know what a reasonable person would do."

Not so, said prosecutor Ryan Couzens. He cautioned jurors Tuesday not to "be tempted to take the concession" of showing sympathy to Talamantes.

"It is first degree murder because drowning is a very particular way of killing someone," he said. "...Drowning is different. You have to decide to do it, you have to start doing it, you have to keep doing it ... even after the struggling (stops), you can decide to undo it, unlike other types of killing. You have time to think about what you are doing."

After drowning Tatiana, Talamantes packed a bag with medications and papers. She could have attempted CPR on her daughter instead, Couzens contends.

"Instead of planning her daughter's recovery, she planned her own escape," he said.

Talamantes wrapped her daughter in a blanket and put her in a trash bag. She could have called the police instead, Couzens said. Talamantes pulled her car from the curb and backed it into the driveway to place the body in the trunk. She could have instead driven her daughter to a hospital for help, he said.

"She lost her temper. This theory that no one can ever willfully kill their child is baloney," Couzens added. "People do horrible things all the time because they experience normal emotions like anger ... It does not take insanity to kill your child."

Couzens maintains Talamantes was of sound mind. After leaving the Davis home of her sister Elisa Torres, where she, Tatiana and son Michael had been living and where Tatiana was drowned, she ran errands with the body in the trunk. She drove to a bank and made a transaction. She drove to her old apartment to ask for her deposit. She possibly stopped to fill a gas can — which was recovered at the Sacramento apartment complex in her trunk along with a book of matches the day the body was discovered, leaving Couzens to question her intentions.

Further, she had the faculties to produce lies, telling Torres she couldn't find Tatiana and that maybe someone took her, Couzens said.

Fredericksen insists that Talamantes' inconsistent comments "are all a part of her confused mind." Her perceived laziness, grouchiness and temper was her mental illness manifesting itself, which gained severity in the last few months leading up to the murder.

On the day of the killing itself, Torres left the house to run errands and Talamantes was left alone with her kids for the first time in about three weeks, and "that's when the voices got stronger," Fredericksen said.

Talamantes previously told detectives she killed her daughter to protect her, that police were going to cut off her head.

"Even if the voices tell you to kill someone it's still murder, anymore than if I told you to kill someone," countered Couzens. "Even if she believes she did it for a good reason it's still murder. And it's premeditated. It just provides a reason for the murder."

Throughout the trial, Fredericksen hypothesized that Talamantes' troubled upbringing, including the murder of her mother at age 11, being molested and the abusive relationship she had with the father of her children, could account for her mental illness.

Couzens countered that having emotional issues is not the same as having psychosis.

In fact, Couzens said Talamantes was denied disability insurance in which she cited depression, bipolar disorder, paranoid schizophrenia and other because "no disability was found" after an exam on Sept. 13, 2013 — about two weeks before the Sept. 26, 2013 murder of her daughter.

And Fredericksen said that a toxicity report from the day of the murder revealed the Talamantes had Tramadol and Prozac in her blood, not illegal drugs, as the prosecution alleged she struggles with.

"There weren't drugs in her system because she didn't have any," said Couzens. "That was part of her angst ... that was part of her aggravation that day."

Throughout the trial Talamantes mostly sat next to her lawyer, elbow on the defendant table, head resting in her palm, with her short, dark hair covering her face from view.

On Tuesday, as Yolo County Superior Court Judge Stephen Mock gave the jury deliberation instructions, Talamantes openly sobbed "no" for a brief moment before composing herself.

After jurors were released for lunch break prior to beginning deliberations, Torres, along with a friend and a daughter, picketed in front of the court house with signs such as "mental illness is real" and "Laura's law," which is a state law that allows for court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment or forced anti-psychotics in most cases.

During her testimony, Torres said she felt she was let down by law enforcement, particularly Davis Police Officer Kim Walker, who saw and spoke with Talamantes the morning of the murder. Talamantes had even offered Tatiana to the officer, before changing her mind.